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Congratulations to the newest HGHOA Board Members: Josh Naftolin and Elaine McVey!
Labels: annual meeting, board, elections
posted by Herb @ 9:16 PM
, Staff Writer
Leesville Road is still a skinny two lanes wide near the Interstate 540 Outer Loop interchange that opened in 1999, but its traffic is starting to thicken. Apartment complexes are sprouting along the road north from I-540 to Leesville's intersection with Hickory Grove Church Road. The Franciscan School at that intersection is a car-pool magnet. A Wake County elementary school is under construction nearby.
Brian Ray says it takes 15 minutes each morning to drive the 1.2 miles from Hickory Grove Church Road to I-540. Keith Spainhour finds it slow going, too, en route from his home in northwest Wake County to work in Research Triangle Park.
They both worry that the morning drive will get a lot worse when the new Sycamore Creek Elementary School opens in fall 2008. They recall that a bond issue Raleigh voters approved in 2005 included money to widen this part of Leesville Road.
So, they ask, When will the new asphalt arrive?
"I was wondering what the delay was and why they haven't started it," Spainhour said.
Alas, traffic will get thicker here before it gets faster. Leesville will stay skinny for a few more years. The Wake school system will widen part of the road near Sycamore Creek Elementary School, but the city won't start work on the rest of the road -- a $10.2 million job -- until 2011.
"Ohhhh, no," Sue S. Harris said, gasping when she heard that distant date. "That will be miserable. Man, that is bad news."
Harris lives nearby in eastern Durham County. She frequently passes through the neighborhood on her way to I-540 ("a wonderful artery," she says) and Triangle Town Center. She sees Leesville Road at its worst in the morning, when she chauffeurs two grandsons to the Franciscan School.
Construction of the I-540 arc across North Raleigh has increased traffic on each of the loop's north-south spoke roads. But the growth has been heavier on some others than on Leesville Road.
The state Department of Transportation counted 22,000 cars a day on Leesville near I-540 in 2005, up from 15,000 in 1998 before the loop opened.
The city is moving faster on a few more urgent road projects funded with 2005 bond money -- improvements to Perry Creek, Tryon and Falls of Neuse roads.
"Falls of Neuse has been pretty monstrous as far as its traffic growth," said Eric J. Lamb, city transportation services manager.
With road construction inflation running about 15 percent per year, costs have risen well above the $60 million voters approved in 2005. Short funding has forced the city to shelve a few items on the 2005 list, including the widening of Mitchell Mill Road.
"But we're still moving forward on Leesville," Lamb said.
Meanwhile, Harris wants city engineers to consider improving how the traffic signals handle Leesville's heavy morning flow. She would like to see the city tinker with the timing at the Farless Road intersection -- to give more green-light time to Leesville drivers and a bit less to those on Farless.
Also see our post on morning traffic congestion.
